This invention relates to the prevention of scorching prior to crosslinking of a peroxide crosslinkable thermoplastic and/or elastomeric polymer composition.
A major difficulty in using organic peroxides or azo compounds in crosslinking elastomeric and thermoplastic materials applications is that they are susceptible to premature crosslinking (i.e., scorch) during compounding and/or processing prior to the actual curing phase. With conventional methods of compounding, such as milling, banbury, or extrusion, scorch occurs when the time-temperature relationship results in a condition where the peroxide or azo initiator undergoes thermal decomposition, initiating the crosslinking reaction whereby gel particles may be formed. Excessive scorch may cause the loss of the entire batch, or plugging of equipment.
One method of avoiding scorch is to use an initiator that is characterized by having a high 10 hr. half-life temperaure for the given application. The disadvantage to this approach is that one subsequently obtains a longer cure time, which results in lower throughput. High cure temperatures can be used but this results in higher energy costs, also a disadvantage.
Another method for avoiding scorch is to lower the compounding and/or processing temperature to improve the scorch safety margin of the crosslinking agent. However, depending upon the polymer and/or process involved, this option may also be limited in scope. In addition, curing at the lower temperature results in lower throughput.
Prior to the present invention certain additives were incorporated into compositions which reduced the tendency for scorching. For example, British Pat. No. 1,535,039 discloses the use of organic hydroperoxides as scorch inhibitors for peroxide-cured ethylene polymer compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,378 discloses the use of N-nitroso diphenylamine or N,N'-dinitroso-para-phenyldiphenylamine as retarders incorporated in a polyfunctional acrylate crosslinking monomer for providing long mooney scorch times in various elastomer formulations. U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,648 discloses the use of nitrates such as isoamyl nitrite, tert-decyl nitrite and others as scorch inhibitors for polyethylene. U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,907 discloses the use of monomeric vinyl compounds such as .alpha.-methylstyrene and n-butyl methacrylate as scorch inhibitors for peroxide-cured ethylene polymers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,124 describes the use of various antioxidants and vulcanization accelerators as scorch inhibitors for peroxide-cured polyethylene.
With these prior art methods, the cure time can also be altered and/or the crosslink density of the cured composition can also be altered. This can lead to a change in productivity and/or product performance.
The present invention overcomes the prior art disadvantages in that an improvement in scorch at compounding temperatures is achieved without significant impact on the final cure time or crosslink density. This is achieved by incorporation of low additive levels, which limits the effect on properties. In addition, significant scorch protection is achieved, since the metal salt combination results in a synergistic effect on scorch time at these low levels.